August 2010

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alpine dam? nope.

August 22, 2010 in riding | No comments

8-22_alpine-fail

this is how far we made it.  we got to the top of the first climb into alpine dam from the fairfax side, and I turned around to wait up from justin when I heard a huge POP!  my heart sunk.  a flat.  we pulled off and took a closer look at the tire.  it was gashed from the sidewall to almost the middle of the tire.  must’ve been a sharp rock, F*CKING ROCKS.  COME ON.

justin busted out a clif bar wrapper, and we put it in the tire from the inside, held with a bit of rubber cement.  swapped tubes, and put the wheel back on.  we figured it’d be risky riding the rest of the ride with a tire running on about 50psi, held together with a wrapper and some glue.  so we hobbled it all the way down, back into fairfax.  climbed and descended camino alto, home bound.  and just after we beat all the hard parts of the ride, with only flat riding out to sausalito left, it blew out a second time.

8-22_alpine-fail2

we had just pulled onto the sidewalk from the gas station at the corner, and my rear went flat.  there’s justin making the call for a pickup.  out of tubes, energy, and out of fight.

wasn’t our day, I guess.  big, big thanks to justin and maggie, my saviors!  time to crush hard next week to make up for this mess.

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never sick of muir.

August 21, 2010 in riding | No comments

8-21_double-muir-woods

I opted for another double muir woods today.  caught cars on the second round of descents…as expected on a weekend.  lots of cyclists out today, but not many going the same direction as me.  caught up to josh from mission cycling on my way back and we chatted a bit.  he’s cat4 now, and quicker than he was a couple months back.  glad to see he’s enjoying his caad9.

back to back double muirs.  I’m just a bit tired.  looking forward to alpine dam tomorrow though.  it’s gonna be awesome.

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empty road fridays.

August 20, 2010 in riding | No comments

8-20_double-muir-woods

had the road to myself today, for the most part.  always caught up to cars on descents but expected considering the time I left, and the fact that it’s a friday.  didn’t see too many cyclists out today, more cars than anything.

what’s left to say? 45mi, 2600ft of climbing, and torched legs.  get it done.

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buried myself a pair of legs.

August 18, 2010 in riding | No comments

8-18_double-muir-woods

saw connor from freewheel coming out of sausalito before I started my double muir.  it was sunny, mild in temperature, and epic out as usual.  more cars back up than usual because a section of highway 1 was turned into 1 lane – workers were repaving the side that goes towards mill valley.  crushed both times around, but was feeling completely trashed coming back into the city.

LOVE IT.

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fruits for birthdays.

August 16, 2010 in general | No comments

8-16_fruit

mmm, watermelon, grape, kiwi, nectarine fruit salad as a dessert for my brother’s birthday.  hope you have a good one, nick.  I’ve got high goals for both of us this year.

fambam.

August 16, 2010 in general | No comments

8-15_bbq

spent some time with the fambam on sunday night at my uncle’s place in the sunset.  he grilled up some patties…they were tasty.

and there was mahjong.  many, many games of mahjong.

out with the kids.

August 15, 2010 in riding | No comments

8-15_alpine-dam

justin and I hit up alpine dam today.  the weather was a bit cooler than usual, which was surprising…but we still had a great time.  justin brought out his point and shoot camera today, and snapped some super crisp shots overlooking alpine dam and 7 sisters.  here’s one of them:

8-15_alpine-dam2

I would’ve posted the other ones, but he turned off the ability for people to save the images off his flickr.  so this one is a screenshot of the photo in the album (see the full one on his flickr).

we had clear descents today, a surprise since usually there are cars we catch up to.  well, actually I take that back.  on the final descent on highway 1 towards mill valley, we got behind 3 cars that were just crawling down the hill.  hauled ass through to mill valley, I think justin said 30mph flatland.  he was hustling hard on the flats and climbs today.  what a G.

and thus ends another successful bike week.  hoping to get the supersix built within the month, more parts will be on order this week to finalize the build.

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now you’re mad. forreal.

August 14, 2010 in riding | No comments

8-14_muir-woods-rodeo-beach

headed out with ben and justin today for a bit of muir woods action, it was ben’s first time riding through mill valley to get to 4 corners.  while we were heading up the 4 corners, we spotted a small group of riders, maybe 7 or so.  I was up ahead, and pass them, and started picking up the pace for the last part of the climb.  I was keeping a quick pace, not slowing down until I got to the top to wait for justin and ben.  I started descending, and when we finally reached the bottom parking lot, justin told me what he saw from the back.  apparently, after I passed those guys, they weren’t too happy.  “F*CKING FREEWHEEL,” I believe was the term used.  hating because I’m reppin’ my crew?  yea boy, hate on it!

so the first half of the loop was done, and we rode up highway 1 to get back into mill valley.  about 400ft ahead, there was a guy in a red kit riding up the hill.  gave me a nice goal to catch, so I left justin and ben in pursuit of the guy.  I caught him, and started to slow up to let them catch up.  that’s when I took this picture.  and about 100ft after this, I dropped my water bottle.  fail on my part.  they caught back up, and passed me.  I grabbed my bottle and started catching back up, now I wanted to catch the guy in red.  down on time, a bit of climbing left…seemed like a fun challenge.  several minutes later, completely shattered, I caught up to him, again.

but that wasn’t the end of the ride.  justin wanted to show us rodeo beach, starting from the bottom of the golden gate.  we looped around and started climbing towards the golden gate parking lot, sausalito side.  fort baker, I think it’s called.  anyway, we rode back up to the lot, and then started riding up to the headlands.  we descended down into rodeo beach, and took a crazy mountain road to a bunker.  the only reason I say crazy is because the entrance is closed, and we had to ride this 6″ patch of dirt around it.  oh, but there’s more.  there were sections of road missing, that were just gravel.  no cars ever come through this way, the road was barely paved.  and then justin said there were coyotes.  so that was great.  LOL.

alpine dam tomorrow, should be fun.

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deda taco fridays.

August 14, 2010 in general | No comments

earlier this week, travis from freewheel tweeted about tacos from a place in the marina called tacolicious.  I was curious to try it, so zain, zach, and I rolled over there friday night to try it out.

8-13_tacolicious

that dark, speckled picture is 10 tacos of various types.  and then we had 4 more fish tacos.  nothing short of epic, highly recommended.

as a side note, I won my auction for the 130mm 82* black deda zero100 stem.  the stock supersix headset is enroute to big swingin’ cycles, and should be there next week.  and then all I have left to order are the seatpost and compact shallow handlebars.  we’re getting close.

and while we’re on the topic about bikes, I may have found the solution to my training wheelset.  I’ve been debating what 36h hubs to use…and came across the shimano 105 5700 hubset.  they come in black, and also in 36h.  they’re the previous generation 105 hub, so they’re less common than the current, but they’re for sale on ebay through select sellers.  heavy hubs, check.  black color, check.  sealed bearings, check.  affordable and they work, CHECK.  looks like I might be pairing these with some open pros in the next few months.  they’re significantly cheaper than dura-ace hubs (plus, what was I thinking…7900 hubs for training?  HA!).

dirty, gritty, misty.

August 13, 2010 in riding | No comments

8-13_double-muir-woods

same weather as always, significantly more sand in the road today.  it got kicked up along with the water to form a thin layer that covered me head to toe.  it’s an unappealing feeling.  my drivetrain started creaking halfway through.  another bad feeling.  the bike is just gritty, I’m about to take off the wheels, put it on the stand and wash it.

almost had a collision with 3 separate tourists that didn’t even bother to look behind them as I yelled “EXCUSE ME!” or “ON YOUR LEFT!”.  here’s what bother’s me, even if you don’t speak english, when you hear a sound of a person coming your way, why not just turn around and see what the sound is from.  and then, if it’s from a cyclist that’s trying to get around you and your wife, maybe you might consider sticking to one side of the road.  oh that’s another thing: yelling DIRECTIONS to people, on your left, on your right, that’s almost a bad idea.  I feel like if you give them a direction, even if it’s the one that you’re going to be coming from, they’re going to move TOWARDS you.  classic example, I yelled out “ON YOUR LEFT!”, and the guy in front of me moves to the left…I’ve resorted to “EXCUSE ME!” because it let’s them choose where the hell they want to go.  honestly I don’t care, but seriously, stick to a SIDE or people are going to die.  babies will be punched.

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